Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Levan, Andrew
• Gompertz, Benjamin P
• Salafia, Om Sharan
• Bulla, Mattia
• Burns, Eric
• Hotokezaka, Kenta
• Izzo, Luca
• Lamb, Gavin P
• Malesani, Daniele B
• Oates, Samantha R
• Ravasio, Maria Edvige
• Escorial, Alicia Rouco
• Schneider, Benjamin
• Sarin, Nikhil
• Schulze, Steve
• Tanvir, Nial R
• Ackley, Kendall
• Anderson, Gemma
• Brammer, Gabriel B
• Christensen, Lise
• Dhillon, Vikram S
• Evans, Phil A
• Fausnaugh, Michael
• Fong, Wen-Fai
• Fruchter, Andrew S
• Fryer, Chris
• Fynbo, Johan P.U
• Gaspari, Nicola
• Heintz, Kasper E
• Hjorth, Jens
• Kennea, Jamie A
• Kennedy, Mark R
• Laskar, Tanmoy
• Leloudas, Giorgos
• Mandel, Ilya
• Martin-Carrillo, Antonio
• Metzger, Brian D
• Nicholl, Matt
• Nugent, Anya
• Palmerio, Jesse T
• Pugliese, Giovanna
• Rastinejad, Jillian
• Rhodes, Lauren
• Rossi, Andrea
• Smartt, Stephen J
• Stevance, Heloise F
• Tohuvavohu, Aaron
• van der Horst, Alexander
• Vergani, Susanna D
• Watson, Darach
• Barclay, Thomas
• Bhirombhakdi, Kornpob
• Breedt, Elmé
• Breeveld, Alice A
• Brown, Alexander J
• Campana, Sergio
• Chrimes, Ashley A
• d'Avanzo, Paolo
• d'Elia, Valerio
• de Pasquale, Massimiliano
• Dyer, Martin J
• Galloway, Duncan K
• Garbutt, James A
• Green, Matthew J
• Hartmann, Dieter H
• Jakobsson, Páll
• Kerry, Paul
• Langeroodi, Danial
• Leung, James K
• Littlefair, Stuart P
• Munday, James
• O'Brien, Paul
• Parsons, Steven G
• Pelisoli, Ingrid
• Saccardi, Andrea
• Sahman, David I
• Salvaterra, Ruben
• Sbarufatti, Boris
• Steeghs, Danny
• Tagliaferri, Gianpiero
• Thöne, Christina C
• de Ugarte Postigo, Antonio
• Kann, David Alexander

Titel

JWST detection of heavy neutron capture elements in a compact object merger

Ist Teil von

• Nature (London), 2024, Vol.626 (8000), p.737-741

Ort / Verlag

Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The mergers of binary compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes are of central interest to several areas of astrophysics, including as the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), sources of high-frequency gravitational waves and likely production sites for heavy element nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture (the r-process). These heavy elements include some of great geophysical, biological and cultural importance, such as thorium, iodine and gold. Here we present observations of the exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst GRB 230307A. We show that GRB 230307A belongs to the class of long-duration gamma-ray bursts associated with compact object mergers, and contains a kilonova similar to AT2017gfo, associated with the gravitational-wave merger GW170817. We obtained James Webb Space Telescope mid-infrared (mid-IR) imaging and spectroscopy 29 and 61 days after the burst. The spectroscopy shows an emission line at 2.15 microns which we interpret as tellurium (atomic mass A=130), and a very red source, emitting most of its light in the mid-IR due to the production of lanthanides. These observations demonstrate that nucleosynthesis in GRBs can create r-process elements across a broad atomic mass range and play a central role in heavy element nucleosynthesis across the Universe.